When Their Pockets Are Full
by Chash
Summary: Takes place three years after Season 2 issue 16, alternate timeline. Chase goes looking for Gert to apologize. Chase Gert one shot.


Title: When Their Pockets Are FullAuthor: Chash  
Fandom: Runaways  
Pairing: Chase/Gert  
Rating: PG-13  
Spoilers: Up to Runaways v2 16  
Disclaimer: Belong to Brian K. Vaughn no money involved, etc.

Chase wants to say a lot of things to Gert when he sees her for the first time in three years. He wants to apologize, he wants to just hold her, he wants to ask why she became a New Avenger, he wants to tell her he loves her. He wants to say she looks good, but he knows she'll think it's because of the weight she's lost and her contacts. He can tell she's wearing contacts even though she's facing away from him--she stands differently with her contacts in, and her hand still strays up to feel for her glasses, just like it always did. He wonders when she switched over, or if it's just for now.

He swallows. He wishes he could just run over and hold on, because then he wouldn't have to talk and he wouldn't just pour out everything he's been thinking. But he settles.

"Never took you for an East Coast girl."

She whirls, and her hand goes for her glasses again and he knows she wishes they were hiding her eyes, and he kind of wishes they were too just so he wouldn't have to see how hurt she still is.

"Hey," he says, waving slightly.

"Chase," she hisses, and he winces. "What. Are. You. Doing. Here?" the last word is an accusation, as if she doesn't understand why he's even still alive, let alone near her.

"Um. You. I. Visiting."

"Visiting."

"Haven't seen you in a while."

"Did you ever think there might be a reason for that?"

"'snot like you're keeping a low profile," he says.

"Maybe I would if I could."

"You did before."

"I wasn't a New Avenger before."

"You were with m--us."

"And how are Molly and Victor?" she asks, giving him a look that says clearly what she thinks Nico should be doing. He wonders if she thinks he's cheating on her.

Three years, and he still thinks of it as cheating on her.

"Good," he says. "Mol's in school again."

"And everyone else?"

"Nico left," he says. "A little after you did. Said she needed to figure herself out after...what happened with Karolina."

Gert stiffens.

"Gert..."

"Arsenic."

"No one's called you that for--"

"You earned the right to call me by my name before, Talkback," she says. "You haven't gotten it back."

He looks at her and she turns away. He wonders where the rest of the team is, what they're like. He wonders if she's got a new boyfriend, and if he would've liked her before the workout or the diet or whatever she did. He wonders what Gert would say if he said there's nothing in the world she could do that would make him think she wasn't the most beautiful girl in the entire universe.

But that's not what he came to say.

"I messed up, Gert."

"Arsenic."

"A long time ago."

"Talkback--"

"Before us."

"Talkback!"

"Before everything--"

"Chase, shut up."

"I killed a guy."

"Ch--" she stops. Turns. Stares.

"I was sixteen," he says. "He tried to steal my van."

"Chase."

"I told the dealer we were grilling when we saved that superhero dude. What's his name--Cape?"

"Cloak," she says, almost too quietly.

"Then she kissed me. And she said she wouldn't tell you what I did and I said I wouldn't tell you what she did."

"That doesn't--"

"I wouldn't've anyway. You're...you've always been too good for me, Gert."

"Arsenic," she says weakly. She's shaking.

"That's why you left."

"It couldn't last," she says, more to herself than him.

He takes a step towards her and she doesn't move away, so he takes another step until he's almost close enough to touch her.

Three years and still.

"I'm sorry, Gert," he says.

"How could you..." she asks, not angry, disbelieving.

"You said it, babe. We're the worst good guys of all time."

"Have you--"

"No."

"That was the only time?"

"I'm not proud, Gert. But I wouldn't. I'm...I've got something. Keeping me good."

"What?" she says, and he remembers that she's younger than him, for once, because she usually seems so much older, but the way she says it sounds tiny and scared.

"You."

"I'm not just going to forgive you," she says. "And this isn't..."

"I know, babe," he says. "I just wanted to tell you."

"You need to leave," she says shakily.

"Bye, Gert," he replies, turning, but something stops him, and her hand's just there, bunching the back of his shirt and he thinks for the first time you can't really hurt someone that much unless there's still something there.

She's sort of looking at her arm as if she doesn't understand it, and it's thinner and stronger, yeah, but he doesn't care. He catches her wrist and she's still shaking.

So he kisses her.

"This doesn't make everything better," she says, whenever they part, which could've been days for all he knows. He missed it too much to really worry.

"It makes a whole hell of a lot better," he says, smirking slow and easy, which he thinks is sexy but she probably thinks is retarded, but it's not like she ever minded before.

She looks at him for a long time and he finally has to look away.

"I'm not a good person, Gert. Not like you. But I love you."

She's still just looking.

"...the Leapfrog broke," he says.

She cracks a smile.

"Even Tron couldn't fix it. We're living in it now. Cuz it's sweet."

"Do the lasers still work?" she asks.

"Come see," he says.


End file.
